Valerie Jardin

Introduction

Welcome back to This Week on Streethunters.net, our weekly bite-sized roundup of the week’s action and events on the Streethunters street photography blog website and across all our social media feeds. If you fancy a scroll back through time, you can check out older weekly run-downs in our This Week category.

We are Out of Camera Bags!

Normally we like to kick off the week on a Monday with a look inside one of your camera bags. For over three years now we’ve been showcasing the many and varied gear setups you all rock when you head out on the streets, from the minimal one camera one lens bags to bags bursting with gear, and from analogue film cameras to digital cameras. We’ve now reached a whopping 137 camera bags! But this week we weren’t able to release a new What’s in Your Camera Bag post because we didn’t have any new camera bags! So, we’re calling on all of you readers and street photographers to send us in a photo of your camera bag so we can keep this fantastic feature going for many more years. Don’t delay!

Valérie Jardin is a good friend of Streethunters.net. Not only is she one of the top women street photographers in the world, but she is also a blogger and author of an eBook called ‘Street Photography: First Steps And Beyond’ which Andrew Sweigart has reviewed on Streethunters.net, and we have also featured Valerie’s camera bag on the website too. You may also be familiar with Valérie from her tireless work as a street photography podcaster, first with Street Focus (including an episode featuring our own Spyros Papaspyropoulos), and currently with a podcast series called Hit the Streets with Valérie Jardin. This week we shared a link on our Facebook Page to Valérie’s latest podcast, Hit The Streets 52: Do Something For Nothing in NYC with Joshua Coombes. In it Valérie interviews Joshua Coombes, a London hairstylist who gives free haircuts to homeless people. The podcast and accompanying blog post describe Valérie’s experience documenting Joshua’s charitable work in NYC using her Fujifilm X100F. You might like to check it out!

Our throwback Tuesday post this week was a lovely delve into the archives from July 2014 from our ‘Street Photo of the Week’ series. The photo featured was this amazing surreal shot by the Russian street photographer Ksenia Tsykunova. Make sure you check out the post for a short bio of Ksenia, links to her portfolio, and Spyros’ breakdown of why he thinks the shot rocks!

There were some really fantastic street photos submitted to the Streethunters.net Facebook Group this week, but my absolute favourite was this superb street shot by Edward Conde, which was chosen as the week’s Streethunters.net Facebook Group Cover Photo! This cracking shot features some great colour, fabulous juxtaposition, and a really nice playful witty tone which I absolutely love. It’s one of those photos you can keep looking at and spotting more and more great little details. Awesome work Edward!

The Streethunters.net Facebook Group Cover Photo for the week commencing 18th September 2017 by Edward Conde.

In our press release this week we announced the launch of an amazing looking new exhibition by Meryl Meisler, described by TIME magazine as one of the top Unsung American Female Photographers of the Past Century. Meryl’s exhibition is being held from the 22nd September to 22nd November at the Bizarre Black Box Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. The exhibition features Meryl’s photos documenting the finale of The Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, alongside a series of her 1977 clown photos which have been edited to include images of current US President Donald Trump. The combination is going to a must-see for lovers of the off-the-wall and surreal! Check out the press release for more info!

We dedicated some time this week to combing through the submissions in the pending pool for the Streethunters.net Flickr Group. A load of superb new street photos were added into the photostream showcase for one of the web’s finest user-submitted curated street photography photo galleries. We are always astounded at the sheer brilliance of the work being produced by street photographers around the world. If you have a spare half an hour or so, or are in need of some inspiration, make sure you dive into it!

On Saturday we shared a link to a GoFundMe run by the street photographer Gareth Bragdon seeking support in his ongoing struggle with the fallout from his diagnosis with Lyme disease. We featured one of Gareth’s street photos in our Street Photo of the Week series, and he also made our List of 15 Flash Street Photographers You Should Follow on Social Media. You can read more about his GoFundMe here. We wish you a speedy recovery Gareth!

Closing

That’s all for this week everyone! The blog was slightly quieter for new posts this week as we had lots of irons in the fire for some other projects and work going on for new content that will be hitting you next week. Make sure you stay tuned for all that we have in store in for you next week by subscribing to our mailing list via the email sign-up on the right, and by liking and following us on Facebook, Twitter, G+, YouTube & Instagram.

You Recommended And You Voted

A week ago, we asked you dear Readers to do one more thing for us and that was to vote for your most influential Street Photographer out of the list of 124. You responded by voting 14,495 times! If you have been following this series of Influential Street Photographers you will notice that the votes are a lot less. Well, this time we added an IP restriction in order to avoid multiple votes from the same sources. We hope it worked!

Thank you!

It is understandable that each one of you is influenced by different Street Photographers for different reasons and that is what makes this vote even more interesting. Influences play an important role in the way an artist perceives the world and his/her art, so it is only logical that each one of us has different sources of inspiration, making our perception of what we consider “an influence” unique. What is important is that you all helped us with your vote to find who are the 20 most influential Street Photographers at this time according to you.

So here they are in the order you voted for them, starting with the Street Photographer that got the most votes:

Introduction

Dear Streethunters.net Readers, for more than 2 years now we’ve been sharing with you the contents of your camera bags. We have finally reached the point where we are at the 100 bag precipice. We have published 99 street photography Camera Bags and we are waiting for that elusive 100th camera bag to one day pop into our mailbox.

Why the camera bags have stopped

Since we published camera bag 99 on August 1st there have been no new submissions and as such the “What’s in your Camera Bag?” weekly posts have stopped being published. Unlike our other posts, the “What’s in your Camera Bag” posts depend 100% on you and your level of participation.

Practice, practice, practice. That is a mantra for street photography. A commandment, even. Like with a musician, or an athlete, only with practice can one become better. Simple? Yes. Common sense? No doubt. But taking the plunge into street photography might seem like an insurmountable feat for some. That first step can arguably be the hardest one an aspiring shooter takes. This is the point where advice and suggestions really come into play. The point where a budding Street photographer is most impressionable. Looking at great images is surely the most important thing to do, but if you’re not tight with another Street photographer, you want some instruction. Outside of taking a workshop, there’s a wealth of resources out there. There’s an incredible amount of books, tutorials and so-called rules shared by an equally incredible amount of street photographers in both print and digital formats. But whose guidance do you trust?

As with learning any skill, art or trade, it’s best to be guided by someone with experience. But that alone doesn’t cut it. Shooting street for years doesn’t mean squat if they’re not good at it. Valerie Jardin has skills and the service time to meet the qualifications for a trusted instructor. Now, she has an e-book, Street Photography: First Steps And Beyond, to add to her resume.

You Recommended And You Voted

A week ago, we asked you dear Readers to do one more thing for us and that was to vote for your most influential Street Photographer out of the list of 115. You voted 20,357 times!

Thank you!

It is understandable that each one of you is influenced by different Street Photographers for different reasons and that is what makes this vote even more interesting. Influences play an important role in the way an artist perceives the world and his/her art, so it is only logical that each one of us has different sources of inspiration, making our perception of what we consider “an influence” unique. What is important is that you all helped us with your vote to find who are the 20 most influential Street Photographers at this time according to you.

One of the Street Photographers on this list, Thomas Leuthard, explained this nicely in his post when he shared the link to the poll on his facebook page. He said:

“Make your personal suggestion, who is the most influential street photographer for you. Not the best, not the most famous, not the coolest, the one who influences you…”

The numbers from last year

So, last year we all nominated together 75 Street Photographers. Then you voted 21,137 times and from those 21,137 votes, 20 names stood out. These names got into the first ever crowdsourced list of Street Photographers. A list that you made and that has been viewed more than 76645 times (at the time of writing this).

Let’s do this again!

So, this year we invite you all to do this again! Things have changed in the Street Photography scene. There are new names that are being mentioned all the time on the Social Networks, there are others out there that are trying hard to make a difference, influencing people around them. More and more Street Photographers are publishing books, filming short documentaries about Street Photography, being interviewed, winning awards and more. The list of names is ever changing and keeps on getting more and more interesting. So, since things are always evolving and ever changing we ask you once again to make your suggestions by sharing your favourites with us!

You make suggestions and share your favourites with us

Just like last year, we the Editorial team, have already made a list of names of 21 Street Photographers that we think are the most influential for 2016. We want you to add to this list by posting as many names of Influential Street Photographers as you like in the comments. You can post 1 name or 50 names. All names will be added to a poll and then we will all vote on them.

ATTENTION: These names will be filtered by us, we will not accept names of Street Photographers that aren’t truly influential.

So for example if you have been a Street Photographer for the last 6 months and you want exposure and you think you can add your name to this list, think again. We want you to suggest true, influential Street Photographers. We will accept suggestions for a week, until next Wednesday evening. Then, we will take those suggestions and have a poll for another week. When the votes are in, we will know who the “The 20 most Influential Street Photographers for 2016” are.

The names Street Hunters recommend

Here are the 21 names of Street Photographers that we recommend in random order. We gave ourselves a limit of 7 names each so we wouldn’t get too carried away:

Elliott Erwitt

Mark Cohen

Ed Templeton

Josef Koudelka

Stacy Kranitz

Tatsuo Suzuki

Daido Moriyama

Eric Kim

Gabi Ben Avraham

Boris the Flash

Alex Webb

David Alan Harvey

Martin Parr

Bruce Davidson

Valerie Jardin

Dirty Harry

Bruce Gilden

Boogie

Pau Ll. Buscató

Tavepong Pratoomwong

Narelle Autio

Each of the above Street Photographers are influential in their own right. For one reason or another. Somehow they have shaped the wider Street Photography community and are continuing to do so. We look forward to receiving your suggestions.

So, come on! Send in the names of the Street Photographers that you think are the most influential for 2016!

ATTENTION: If you can’t comment on our website for some reason, try a Social Network login to comment. If again you can’t comment, just visit our Facebook Page and share your suggestion in the comments of the post there.

You recommended and you voted

A week ago, we asked you dear Readers to do one more thing for us and that was to vote for your most influential Street Shooter out of the list of 75. You voted 21,137 times!

Thank you!

It is understandable that each one of you is influenced by different Street Photographers for different reasons and that is what makes this vote even more interesting. Influences play an important role in the way an artist perceives the world and his/her art, so it is only logical that each one of us has different sources of inspiration, making our perception of what we consider “an influence” unique. What is important is that you all helped us with your vote to find who are the 20 most influential Street Photographers at this time according to you. So here they are:

ATTENTION – Send us your camera bags!

If you want to participate, please read the rules of participation at the end of the post.Stay Sharp & Keep Shooting!

Inside Valerie Jardin’s Camera bag! (Bag No40)

Bonjour!

I’m Valerie Jardin. I’m from France, currently living in the US. I’m a photographer, educator, writer and host of the Street Focus podcast. I have become such a gear minimalist that most of my favorite bags are too big, even the Think Tank Retrospective 5. I still use it for travel, to carry my main camera and a back up for traveling. Once on location, I hit the streets with my Crumpler 4 bag. I find the seatbelt strap extremely comfortable. My Fuji x100s doesn’t even take 1/2 of the space so I can easily put my wallet/passport, extra batteries, an Anker charger for my iPhone, and a small umbrella. Often times a water bottle replaces the umbrella but, since I’m always in a city, it’s just as convenient to buy beverages and snacks as needed (or to sit at a cafe and watch/photograph people!) While on the walk the camera is never in the bag so it’s extremely light, which is the way I like it!

Introduction

Exactly one year ago we wrote a post that went viral at the time. Since then it has been viewed more than 75000 times and commented on more than 50 times. This post is called “The 10 most Influential Active Street Photographers“. If you haven’t read it, we recommend you check it out and let us know what you think in the comments. In this post, we presented Street Photographers that we think are worth mentioning for 2 specific reasons. How influential they are and how active.

Influential: “having great influence on someone or something.”Active: “engaging or ready to engage in physically energetic pursuits.”